Pillar Lights

What a pillar light is, and where it goes

A pillar light is a lantern built to stand on a flat pier cap or a gate post rather than hang from a wall or rise on a column. The body carries its own base plate, and the cable comes up through the pier from below. Most people buy them in pairs, one for each side of a driveway entrance, which is why the pair reads as a gate rather than as two separate lights. They also work on the corner piers of a garden wall, on the low walls either side of a front path, and on the capping of a raised terrace. Where the pier is narrow rather than square, a slimmer body with a smaller base keeps the proportions right.

Sizing a pillar light to your gate posts

Measure the pier cap first, across the top, and compare it with the base diameter given on each product page. A base that overhangs looks unfinished and lets water sit under the plate. As a rough guide, a 350mm to 450mm pier takes a light of around 400mm to 600mm in height; a full 600mm pier carries one of 700mm to 1m without looking small. Height matters more than people expect, because a light that is too short disappears behind the pier from the road and one that is too tall leans the eye away from the house. If you are buying a pair for a driveway, look at the two piers together and size for the larger of them.

Fixing, cable routes and what to plan before you order

Fixing is usually four bolts into the cap, and the cable rises inside the pier to meet the light. That is easy on a new build and harder on an existing pier, so check whether there is a duct before you order. Where there is no route through the pier, a surface conduit run down the back face and painted to match is the usual answer. All of this is work for a qualified electrician on a suitably protected circuit, and an outdoor supply needs the right protection at the consumer unit. If the piers are already capped in stone, ask your installer to look at the cap before you commit to a base size.

IP ratings and British weather

A pillar light stands in the open with nothing above it, so the rating matters more than it does on a sheltered porch. IP44 covers splashing from any direction and suits most inland positions. IP65 handles jets of water and is the sensible choice on an exposed site, near the coast, or where the light sits under a tree that drips long after the rain stops. Look at the gasket and the glazing as well as the number. Hand-cut glass and polycarbonate both work outdoors, with polycarbonate taking a knock better and glass holding its clarity longer.

Cast iron, galvanised steel and copper

Cast iron is the traditional material for this kind of light and it is heavy for a reason: the weight holds the shape and the casting holds the detail. Galvanised steel is lighter and resists rust from the inside out, which suits coastal and exposed sites. Copper is the third option, and it is the one that changes. A copper head arrives bright, dulls within weeks and settles into a brown then a green patina over years. All three take a paint finish, and gloss black is the standard across most of our range, with other colours available to order on several of them.

Matching a pillar light to a lamp post or a wall light

Entrances read best when the pieces share a family. If you already have a lamp post on the drive or a wall light beside the door, look for the same lantern head in the pillar version rather than a different shape in the same colour. Many of our ranges run the same head across a post, a pedestal, a pillar light and a wall bracket, so a whole entrance can share one outline at four different heights. Where the house has an original light you are keeping, match the number of glazed panes and the shape of the finial before you worry about the exact black.

Lamps, output and colour

Most pillar lights in our range take an E27 screw lamp, which leaves the output and the colour to you rather than fixing it at the factory. A 7W to 10W LED at 2700K gives the warm light people expect at a front entrance; 4000K reads colder and suits a modern house better than a period one. Check the maximum wattage on the product page and stay under it, because the figure is a safety limit for the fitting rather than a recommendation. If you want the pair to come on at dusk, a photocell or a timer on the circuit is tidier than a sensor in each head.